Vermont Garden Journal

On my garden tour to France last fall, we went to Versailles. The city is famous for gardens, palaces and its orangerie. An orangerie is a building built to grow lemons, oranges and limes year-round in a cold climate. But you don't have to build an orangerie to enjoy citrus even in our northern climate.

I love it when old ideas come full-circle and become relevant again. For example, take milkweed. This common plant is considered a weed by farmers trying to grow forage crops; however, it's prized by butterfly lovers since the plant provides essential food for the monarch butterfly. Now, milkweed has another use that harkens back to Colonial times.

Common plant names can be misleading. Joe Pye weed isn't a weed at all. Eggplant does not bear eggs and I have yet to find crabs on my crabapples. The name Christmas cactus is the same. You'd think it would bloom at Christmas time, but mine start in November and continue through late winter.

With Thanksgiving on the way, many of us are looking up recipes for pumpkin pie. While pumpkins certainly make great pies, other types of winter squash make wonderful pies, too.

The word around horticultural circles is that houseplants are back! With a growing interest in having greenery indoors and the benefit of air purification, houseplants are being used by interior designers to create a cozy, natural look.

The storm earlier this week caused significant damage to many trees in Vermont. The combination of ferocious wind and heavy rain uprooted large trees and, in the process, damaged nearby trees as well. While uprooted trees can't be saved, you can salvage trees with broken branches.

Leaves are beautiful to look at when they turn vibrant colors in fall, but can be a pain to clean up when they drop. Instead of cursing your fallen leaves, rejoice in them! Leaves can help your flowers, vegetables, lawn, trees and shrubs grow better.

Halloween has become one of our most popular holidays. It's estimated Americans will spend over $8 billion dollars on candy, decorating, making costumes and having parties. At the center of all this activity is the common pumpkin, so read on if you want to step-up your jack-o'-lantern decorating game.

What grows in a vegetable garden and is used for everything but eating? Gourds! Hard-shelled gourds can be used for a shower sponge, spoon, dipper, bottle, basket, birdhouse and even a musical instrument.

I'm a native New Englander but still always struck by our fall foliage colors. Many gardeners like to bring these colors into their yards with beautiful trees and shrubs but don't forget about adding edibles.

I've always shied away from growing corn. It takes up space and then there's the raccoons. I just wasn't into the electric fence and netting that other gardeners use to protect their sweet corn. Instead, I've started growing popcorn. Raccoons don't seem to care for it and it's a lot easier to grow than you'd think.

I used to own a camp with a swimming pond in the Northeast Kingdom. I remember in late summer swimming in the pond and admiring these plants growing along the pond edge. They were 2- to 3-feet tall with rounded stems, deep green, boldly veined leaves and white or pink flowers on the top of the stems. The flowers reminded me of an animal's head. Do you know the animal I'm talking about? Yes, it was chelone or turtle head. You don't have to live in the Northeast Kingdom or have a pond to grow

I love plants with interesting stories. One example is Eutrochium Purpureum. Don't know it? Well, back in colonial times there was a Native American medicine man who made tea from a certain wild plant to help cure typhoid fever. He saved the colonists and his name then became synonymous with the plant; Joe Pye weed.

This European native wildflower is in the snapdragon family but you'd never know from its shape and size. It has a tall flower spike, was used medicinally to treat respiratory problems and now has many showy hybrids created by plant breeders. I'm talking about Verbascum.

It's been a great fruit season and now's the time to pick the late summer fruits and berries. But how and when you harvest can make all the difference.